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“Rethinking learning in the digital age” was the theme of EDUsummIT 2017, which was held in Borovets, Bulgaria in September, 2017. Approximately 100 policy makers, practitioners and researchers met to discuss key topics in nine Thematic Working Groups. These topics were: (1) education systems in the digital age: the need for alignment; (2) informal learning with technology; (3) professional development for technology-enhanced learning leaders; (4) digital agency to empower equity in the classroom; (5) formative assessment supported by technology; (6) developing creativity in teachers and learners; (7) learning from national policy experiences;(8) upbringing in a digital world: opportunities and possibilities of schooling, and (9) sustainability and scalability of technology integration initiatives. In this special issue we present the scholarly articles that were written after EDUsummIT 2017, based on discussions within the Thematic Working Groups during the meeting itself. We also present the Call to Action that was consolidated from the closing statements of the nine EDUsummIT 2017 Thematic Working Groups.

Energy planning represents an investment-decision problem. Investors commonly evaluate such problems using portfolio theory to manage risk and maximize portfolio performance under a variety of unpredictable economic outcomes. Energy planners need to similarly abandon their reliance on traditional, ''least-cost'' stand-alone technology cost estimates and instead evaluate conventional and renewable energy sources on the basis of their portfolio cost--their cost contribution relative to their risk contribution to a mix of generating assets. This report describes essential portfolio-theory ideas and discusses their application in the Western US region. The memo illustrates how electricity-generating mixes can benefit from additional shares of geothermal and other renewables. Compared to fossil-dominated mixes, efficient portfolios reduce generating cost while including greater renewables shares in the mix. This enhances energy security. Though counter-intuitive, the idea that adding more costly geothermal can actually reduce portfolio-generating cost is consistent with basic finance theory. An important implication is that in dynamic and uncertain environments, the relative value of generating technologies must be determined not by evaluating alternative resources, but by evaluating alternative resource portfolios. The optimal results for the Western US Region indicate that compared to the EIA target mixes, there exist generating mixes with larger geothermal shares at equal-or-lower expectedmore » cost and risk.« less

Driven by smart grid technologies, distributed energy resources (DERs) have been rapidly developing in recent years for improving reliability and efficiency of distribution systems. Emerging DERs require effective and efficient coordination in order to reap their potential benefits. In this paper, we consider an optimal DER coordination problem over multiple time periods subject to constraints at both system and device levels. Fully distributed algorithms are proposed to dynamically and automatically coordinate distributed generators with multiple/single storages. With the proposed algorithms, the coordination agent at each DER maintains only a set of variables and updates them through information exchange with a few neighbors. We show that the proposed algorithms with properly chosen parameters solve the DER coordination problem as long as the underlying communication network is connected. The simulation results are used to illustrate and validate the proposed method.

New chemical sensors for adrenaline Adr were fabricated. For that, a thin film of a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) was templated with protonated adrenaline HAdr. Differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), capacitive impedometry (CI), or piezoelectric microgravimetry (PM) was integrated within each chemosensor for analytical signal transduction. First, molecular structure of prepolymerization complex of HAdr with bis(2,2'-bithienyl)methane substituted with the benzo-(18-crown-6) 2 and 4-carboxyphenyl 3 was thermodynamically optimized at the B3LYP/6-31g(d) level. Then, a HAdr-templated MIP film was deposited on the Pt disk electrode and on the Au film electrode of a 10-MHz quartz crystal resonator (QCR) by potentiodynamic electropolymerization from solution of HAdr, 2, 3, and the cross-linking tris([2,2'-bithiophen]-5-yl)methane 4 monomer at the HAdr:2:3:4 = 1:1:1:2 mole ratio. For determination of Adr, the DPV peak current for the K4[Fe(CN)6] redox probe under batch conditions and the resonant frequency and capacity of the electrical double layer under FIA conditions were measured. The lower limits of detection (LOD) were 2 nM, 0.5 μM, and 1.5 μM for the DPV, PM, and CI chemosensor, respectively, indicating suitability of the DPV chemosensor for Adr determination in biological systems (-50 nM). The chemosensors were appreciably selective to Adr in the presence of common interferents.

ABSTRACTA detailed chemical kinetic model for oxidation of CH3OH at high pressure and intermediate temperatures has been developed and validated experimentally. Ab initio calculations and Rice–Ramsperger–Kassel–Marcus/transition state theory (RRKM/TST) analysis were used to obtain rate coefficients for , , , and . The experiments, involving CH3OH/O2 mixtures diluted in N2, were carried out in a high‐pressure flow reactor at 600–900 K and 20–100 bar, varying the reaction stoichiometry from very lean to fuel‐rich conditions. Under the conditions studied, the onset temperature for methanol oxidation was not dependent on the stoichiometry, whereas increasing pressure shifted the ignition temperature toward lower values. Model predictions of the present experimental results, as well as rapid compression machine data from the literature, were generally satisfactory. The governing reaction pathways have been outlined based on calculations with the kinetic model. Unlike what has been observed for unsaturated hydrocarbons, the oxidation pathways for CH3OH under the investigated conditions were very similar to those prevailing at higher temperatures and lower pressures. At the high pressures, the modeling predictions for onset of reaction were particularly sensitive to the reaction.

Reduced instrument responses are presented for Thermal-Hydraulic Test Facility (THTF) test 101, which is part of the ORNL Pressurized-Water Reactor (PWR) Blowdown Heat Transfer Separate-Effects Program. The objective of the program is to investigate the thermal-hydraulic phenomenon governing the energy transfer and transport processes that occur during a loss-of-coolant accident in a PWR system. Test 101 was conducted to investigate the thermal-hydraulic response of bundle 1 and the main heat exchangers to powered operation and a single-ended rupture at the test section outlet.

We present a detailed spectral analysis of the prompt and afterglow emission of four nearby long-soft gamma-ray bursts (GRBs 980425, 030329, 031203, and 060218) that were spectroscopically found to be associated with type Ic supernovae, and compare them to the general GRB population. For each event, we investigate the spectral and luminosity evolution, and estimate the total energy budget based upon broadband observations. The observational inventory for these events has become rich enough to allow estimates of their energy content in relativistic and sub-relativistic form. The result is a global portrait of the effects of the physical processes responsible for producing long-soft GRBs. In particular, we find that the values of the energy released in mildly relativistic outflows appears to have a significantly smaller scatter than those found in highly relativistic ejecta. This is consistent with a picture in which the energy released inside the progenitor star is roughly standard, while the fraction of that energy that ends up in highly relativistic ejecta outside the star can vary dramatically between different events. 55 pages including 23 figures and 8 tables. Accepted for publication in ApJ. Replaced with the accepted version

We describe the next generation general purpose Evaluated Nuclear Data File, ENDF/B-VII.0, of recommended nuclear data for advanced nuclear science and technology applications. The library, released by the U.S. Cross Section Evaluation Working Group (CSEWG) in December 2006, contains data primarily for reactions with incident neutrons, protons, and photons on almost 400 isotopes, based on experimental data and theory predictions. The principal advances over the previous ENDF/B-VI library are the following: (1) New cross sections for U, Pu, Th, Np and Am actinide isotopes, with improved performance in integral validation criticality and neutron transmission benchmark tests; (2) More precise standard cross sections for neutron reactions on H, 6 Li, 10 B, Au and for 235,238 U fission, developed by a collaboration with the IAEA and the OECD/NEA Working Party on Evaluation Cooperation (WPEC); (3) Improved thermal neutron scattering; (4) An extensive set of neutron cross sections on fission products developed through a WPEC collaboration; (5) A large suite of photonuclear reactions; (6) Extension of many neutron- and proton-induced evaluations up to 150 MeV; (7) Many new light nucleus neutron and proton reactions; (8) Post-fission beta-delayed photon decay spectra; (9) New radioactive decay data; (10) New methods for uncertainties and covariances, together with covariance evaluations for some sample cases; and (11) New actinide fission energy deposition. The paper provides an overview of this library, consisting of 14 sublibraries in the same ENDF-6 format as the earlier ENDF/B-VI library. We describe each of the 14 sublibraries, focusing on neutron reactions. Extensive validation, using radiation transport codes to simulate measured critical assemblies, show major improvements: (a) The long-standing underprediction of low enriched uranium thermal assemblies is removed; (b) The 238 U and 208 Pb reflector biases in fast systems are largely removed; (c) ENDF/B-VI.8 good agreement for simulations of thermal high-enriched uranium assemblies is preserved; (d) The underprediction of fast criticality of 233,235 U and 239 Pu assemblies is removed; and (e) The intermediate spectrum critical assemblies are predicted more accurately. We anticipate that the new library will play an important role in nuclear technology applications, including transport simulations supporting national security, nonproliferation, advanced reactor and fuel cycle concepts, criticality safety, fusion, medicine, space applications, nuclear astrophysics, and nuclear physics facility design. The ENDF/B-VII.0 library is archived at the National Nuclear Data Center, BNL, and can be retrieved from www.nndc.bnl.gov .